favor, they would at once provoke the hostilitycool, vigilant, business-like-of men who have many hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in books in whole systems of books- planned upon radically different principles. Until some man, on horseback comes and purges the commonweal, it always will be necessary to fight these men with their own weapons. And even then there is the fight in newspapers, by articles, advertisements, and opinions from eminent gentlemen. I have been behind the scenes enough to know thoroughly how all this business is managed, and I would tell on very slight provocation. Why, even already the priests of the present idols have begun to denounce a certain pestilent-fellow, and their craftsmen to cry, Great is Diana of the Ephesians!

To publish, with any chance of success, a book intended for use in public schools has become a serious commercial and political undertaking; and,

books. As our readers probably know, it is the almost universal custom of schoolbook publishers, for the sake of getting their series used and ousting books of rival houses, to furnish the former - at least the first lot at even below cost price, and to take the old books in part pay, sending them to the junk dealers. Teachers are induced, by the smooth-tongued agents of these houses and the large commissions which they offer, to change books so frequently that their pupils are in a constant state of perplexity, while the waste of books is terrible, and all the publishers have their profits more than half eaten up by the necessary outlays and recriminations. There are two houses in this country each of which loses probably between two and three hundred thousand dollars a year in this way, while the total loss to publishers cannot be much less than a million dollars. We are glad to be able to state that a movement is now on foot, which bids fair to succeed, toward doing away with this great evil. Representatives of such houses as Barnes, Harper, Appleton, Sheldon, etc., of this city, have issued an invitation to twenty-one firms in New York, thirteen in Philadelphia, ten in Boston, and sixteen elsewhere, to send representatives to meet in this city the 16th of March, and continue in session until some arrangement is made, looking to more sensible and profitable relations between school-book publishers." Evening Mail.

The proposed meeting was held, and measures were taken which may possibly put an end to this reproach to the book trade, and to the schords, public and private, throughout the country.

if nothing more is expected for it than its introduction into private schools, even then it should be in the hands of publishers sufficiently wealthy and adroit to make it the interest of teachers to adopt the book in their schools. For if it were left to go upon its mere merits, it would, if good, of course meet with a certain sale among intelligent and honorable teachers; but this would be too small to cause it to be regarded by any enterprising publisher as profitable investment of money and labor. For these reasons I fear that I must be content with dropping what I have written as seed into the ground, hoping that it may have life enough to grow and bring forth fruit, although in that case others will reap the harvest. Sic vos, non vobis.

APPENDIX.

I.

HOW THE EXCEPTION PROVES THE RULE.

THE

HE few people who care to say only what they mean, and who therefore think about what they say and what others say to them, must sometimes be puzzled by the reply often made to an objection, "Well, he, or that, is an exception, and you know the exception proves the rule." This is uttered with calm assurance, as conclusive of the question at issue, and is usually received in silence with an air of indifferent acquiescence on the part of the thoughtless, but on the part of the more thoughtful with a meek expression of bewilderment. The former are saved from the trouble of further mental exertion, and they are content; the latter feel that they have been overcome by the bringing up of a logical canon which always stands ready as a reserve, but the truth of which, admitted as indisputable, they would like very much to be able to dispute. In fact, this pretentious maxim infests discussion, and pervades the every-day talk of men, women, and children. It appears in the writings of historians, of essayists, and of polemics, as well as in those of poets, novelists, and journalists. A legislator

will use it to destroy the effect of an instance brought forward which is directly at variance with some general assertion that he has made. "The case so strongly

I admit the

But, sir, her

insisted upon by the honorable gentleman does appar ently show that all women do not desire the passage of a law permitting them to wear trousers. preference of Miss Pettitoes for petticoats. case is an exception, and we all know that the exception proves the rule." It enters even into the word-skirmish of flirtation. "How dare you assert," says Miss Demure to Tom Croesus, defiance on her lip and witchery in her eye, "that women nowadays are all mercenary! Don't you know that is an insult to me?" "Ah, but, Miss Demure," replies the weakly-struggling Croesus, "you're an exception; and you know the exception proves the rule." Whereupon the lady submits with charming grace to the conqueror, having within her innocent breast the consoling conviction that she is playing her big fish with a skill that will soon lay him gasping at her feet. There is no turn which this maxim is not thus made to serve; and this use of it has gone on for a century and more, and people submit to the imposition without a murmur.

An imposition the maxim is, of the most impudent kind, in its ordinary use; for a mere exception never proved a rule; and that it should do so is, in the very nature of things, and according to the laws of right rea son, impossible. Consider a moment. How can the fact that one man, or one thing, of a certain class, has certain traits or relations, prove that others of the same class have opposite traits and other relations? A says, “ I, and C, and D, and X, and Y, and Z are white; therefore all the other letters of the alphabet are white." "No, they are not," B answers, "for I am black." "O, you are an exception," A rejoins, "and the exception proves the rule." And A and most of his hearers thereupon regard the argument as concluded, at least for the time being. The supposed example is an extreme one, but it serves none the less the purposes of fair illustration. For of what value, as evidence, upon the color of the alphabet,

is the fact that B is black? It merely shows that one letter is black, and that any other may be black, except those which we know to be of some other color. But of the color of the remaining twenty-three letters it tells us nothing; and so far from supporting the assertion that because A, C, D, X, Y, and Z are white, all the other letters are white, it warrants the inference that some of them may be black also. And yet day after day, for a hundred and fifty years,* men of fair intelligence have gone on thoughtlessly citing this maxim, and yielding to its authority when used exactly as it is used in the case above supposed.

For instance, the following passage is from a leading article in the "New York Tribune:

"The business of printing books is now leaving the great cities for more economical and more desirable locations. The exceptions rather prove the rule than invalidate it."

How do the exceptions either prove or invalidate the rule? In what way does the fact that there are some printing offices in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia prove that printers generally choose the smaller towns or the country? Plainly, one of these facts has no relations. whatever to the other.

In "Lothair," Mr. Disraeli makes Hugo Bohun say that he respects the institution of marriage, but thinks that "every woman should marry, but no man,” and to the objection that this view would not work practically, reply,

"Well, my view is a social problem, and social problems are the fashion at present. It would be solved through the exceptions, which prove the principle. In the first place, there are your swells, who cannot avoid the halter-you are booked when you are born; and then there are moderate men, like myself, who have their weak moments," etc., etc.

The date of its first appearance in literature or the records of colloquial speech I do not profess to know; but I cannot recollect an instance of its use earlier than the days of the Queen Anne essayists.